Hi. Y’all,
I’be seen conversion kits on eBay for direct coIl on plug for other 4 cylinder imports. Why or has anyone seen one produced for the R53 Mini S? The room is pretty limited with the intercooler close to the plug boot and would be a limitation.
Have run the 10mm Dragonfire plug wires many times with the wire having to “bend” 90* and some times leaking voltage and “carbon tracking” and arching onto the intercooler. That kinda sucks about that design has happened many times.
From what I heard from the people that have done this to their 4 banger imports has shown to be a much superior system. And the reason the newer Mini use this direct coil system. So anyone heard of a harness or conversion kit for our R53’s?

 

Well no responses to my post so I thought I would take the bull by the horns and test the on plug coil configuration to see if there is improvement over the duel coil and plug wires. So I went to eBay and searched through all makes of direct coil to plug makes and thought the two pole connectors from the Kia Rio looked to be a likely candidate for the R53 S even though the R56 etc. have coil one’s but won’t clear because of the intercooler being a tight space and a little too tall. So I bought 4 Kia Rio coils for $25 a harness for $15 and a mini male coil connector pigtail for $8. Reconfigured the harness to fire cylinders 1 and 4 and then 2 and 3. Received the coils after spending 4 days touring Pa. 7 days after ordering. Everything looked like it was going according to plan till I tried to test fit the coil inserted on the plug and… too big so I gambled and lost on the guess on size. So not to give up so fast I looked for another 2 pole connection coil and saw the coil for the Ford F150 that looked thinner plug shaft and not too tall on top. So 8 coils for $80 and leaves me with 4 spares for replacements if there is a failures which they tend to do since they soak up more heat from being surrounded in engine heat more.
So this will probably be an exorcise in futility but. Besides nothing ventured nothing… gained.

 

If you have a good coil and good plug leads, there will be no gain from going coil on plug design

 

Have had 10mm wires (thicker insulation less chance of leakage) but have had them leak voltage and carbon track at the top of the boot and arch onto the intercooler many times. The turbo mini’s intercooler in front so why did they switched to coil on plug if there is no advantage? One I can think of is wire has some resistance direct has “0”. One disadvantage is more heat to cause dead coils. But as I said nothing ventured nothing gained. But the conversion I saw on YouTube on a Honda V-tec and the guy seemed to think there was. So l will gamble with $150 bucks and keep my original coil and wires with me if I have a failure ready to switch back at any time.

 

Your 2012 Clubman has coil on plug right. Why did it change if there was no advantage? And this is regarding first generation Mini’s your in a different forum .

 

Interested to see how this goes. I would like to do the direct spark conversion.

I agree that there would not be a noticeable gain with the stock ECU since you would still be running them in waste spark ignition mode.

I have a Link ECU which would allow a true direct spark ignition to be setup. It uses the Cam position sensor along with the Crank position sensor to determine which cylinder is on the compression stroke. This would cut the number of ignition events in half since each coil would only fire on the compression stroke with direct spark ignition, not compression and exhaust on the wasted spark ignition. It would also allow the ECU to determine which cylinder is knocking, so you only need to pull timing on that one cylinder. You could also setup separate timing for each cylinder.

I have #3 cylinder getting 0.5% more fuel than the other cylinders to make up for the "sub-optimal" intake design which causes #3 to run leaner than the other cylinders. You could do a similar strategy with timing if you find one cylinder has most of the knock events.

Good Luck, and keep us posted.

Alan

 

With a coil on plug, the OEMs can control the spark timing better. There are a number of reasons newer cars use coil on plug. Can also fire the plugs independently of each other. With your conversion, you’ll still be firing in a waste spark pattern - 1 & 4 will fire simultaneously, and 2 & 3 will fire simultaneous, similar to the firing pattern of the OEM coil. Simply extending wires and placing a coil on each plug doesn’t get you the same benefits seen when an OEM switches to coil on plug. For best results, you would have to swap over to a a whole new ignition controller, too. But, hey, part of hot rodding is learning on the fly too…. Make some changes and see what works.

 

Here’s the video of the Honda coil on plug conversion.


His has a distributor I may be off here but as long as the correct cylinders 1&4 - 2&3 fire I don’t see why it shouldn’t work but tell me if this is just a waste of time or just that no one has ever tried it?

 

Here’s another Honda coversion “kit”

So that must be a hal effect sensor pick up on the distributor shaft is the biggest difference R53 has the distributorless ignition. Coils will be here in a couple more days so if they fit we’ll see then.

 

Those Honda engines are completely different from the Mini. They are starting with a distributor, for one. You’re ready starting with a reliable digital coil ignition.

 

I just saw a vid on YouTube explaining the wasted spark on the exhaust stroke and would definitely cut the dwell time on the coils in half. I still want to see for myself if there’s any improvement off idle throttle response. This is my second 1st gen mini s and I’ve experienced a hesitation off idle on both and if it improves that and hopefully a more linear acceleration. Anyway was I thinking to leave my my original wires and coil in place and if theirs a problem and I don’t see any advantage at all it will be easy to change it back. Now if someone with electrical engineering background comes up with a module or something that eliminates the wasted spark than that would definitely be a leap forward for the 1st gens.

 

Just reread Alan’s post again on his Link ecu can you elaborate is it a stand-alone ecu or a module? $?

 

Link is a standalone. I doubt you will see any difference in throttle response. That’s a function of the stock DME and the drive by wire system. It’s something I keep meaning to dig into, but a competent tuner could also make that change.

 

Unrelated to my post. Just saw this cool-*** all wheel drive K24-swamped and turbo’d ‘05 Mini S on YouTube.
Loved the reaction of the guy riding shotgun when he nailed it. “Hey.. I got kids at home man!!”

 

It is a standalone, but it is a direct replacement for the stock ECU. Just pull out the stock ECU and install the Link - "Our BMW Mini ECU comes in its own case which fits directly into the factory location." But be careful - it may be non-trivial to get all the MINI functions to work. For example it only works with Manual transmissions and does not support Chronopack. My MINI is a race car so I didn't have any of those issues - all I needed was for the wipers to work . The advantages are the excellent logging and tuning capabilities of the Link.

 

Ok went to the Link ecu website and way too much tech for me. I don’t even want to think about having to service my supercharger let alone installing that. Thanks for info the anyway.

 

Just as an FYI, there is now compatibility with Chrono-Pack cars.

(Copied from a response Link sent me)
"In the latest firmware there has been an addition of Oil Temperature and Oil Pressure values to R53 Mini CAN stream. I believe there are the 2 parameters in the chrono pack.
This addition will not affect any of your other readouts."

These two values were the "only" reason there was no Chrono-Pack option, and no, the Link website has not been updated with this.

Just in case anyone is interested.

 

Well I got the the Ford F-150 coils and….. too big again! All the 2 poll coils look the same looks like my experiment is not happening.
Unless I happen across some coil that’s small enough to fit the plug hole and short enough to clear the intercooler dead for now.

 

I'm wondering if the TMIC wasn't one of the reasons the factory opted out of Coil-On-Plug.

Just a thought.

 

Advantages are dependant on your setup. If you're running a stock setup, and are just daily driving, then not much at all, but some of us have higher RPM limits and extreme uses with ECU'S that can manipulate every facet of the ignition system. So for some it's another step to an advantage.